


Nobody's falling like I'm falling for you

by WhimperSoldier



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Ballet Dancer Katsuki Yuuri, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 00:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhimperSoldier/pseuds/WhimperSoldier
Summary: The other competitors had danced to the audience, throwing out smiles and kisses and teasing winks, but Katsuki seemed to be transcending that, calling to someone watching sayinglook, look at me, I'm dancing for you, can't you see?and every one in the audience felt as if it was for them. Victor included.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 11
Kudos: 218





	Nobody's falling like I'm falling for you

**Author's Note:**

> Please listen to Whispers by Oshi and Avonlea, it literally inspired this whole thing!
> 
> My dance knowledge is garbage but I could see the routine in my mind and knew Yuri would be the one dancing it!

Victor found practice to be empty and uninspiring. With five wins under his belt and an expected gold at the next Grand Prix, being on the ice was just space between lackluster performances that snagged him gold at whatever event he was at that day.

So when Mila came in practically vibrating with joy and squealed when she skidded to a stop in front of Yuri, Victor found his interest peaked. Little Yuri was also excited from the little dance he did that ended with him pumping an arm up and almost going in to hug Mila but stopping himself, settling instead for a fist bump and a hesitant smile.

Victor swung around and into their bubble, both skaters going silent and the small smile slipping off Yuri’s face.

“What are you so happy about?” Victor was notorious about being forgetful, but he did remember that Yuri liked to go to concerts though none that Victor could also see Mila going to. She liked heavy metal.

“Yuri and I got tickets to a ballet competition in St. Petersburg to see one of our favorite dancers. He’s never come to Russia before!” Mila laughed and showed him the stylized logo and design on the ticket. Victor felt his interest fading the way one might watch a match flicker out in the dark. He sighed deeply in a way that just seemed to piss Yuri off more.

“He is fantastic and makes your choreography look like shit,” Yuri hissed and skated off. Victor felt a little bad, he remembered what it was like to have a crush on the more experienced though his were always skaters. 

“So, what is this brilliant man’s name?” He asked Mila and even though she looked a little annoyed with his flamboyant arrogance, she showed him an Instagram handle.

“Yuuri Katski, huh?” 

Victor didn't think anything of the man after that, at least until a month later when Yakov’s ex-wife came in to train Mila and almost looked excited when she said she too would be going to the competition. Victor had once invited her to an expensive musical showing in town to which she said she could never sit through some mediocre showing of what should only be performed as a masterpiece of footwork instead of vocals. Needless to say, Victor was surprised.

So when the competition was less than a month away, Victor decided he would go see what all the fuss was about. He had to pay a scalper a truly insane amount of money to nab the seat next to Yuri, but he still found some pleasure in being difficult, especially if it was to Yuri, who was riled up so easily.

The auditorium was shaped differently than for concerts or musicals, the seats curved almost completely around the stage. The stage itself was low to the ground and the seats were not pushed back to make room for a pulpit but moved all the way forward to leave little standing room. People were milling around even two hours before the competition even started. He’d only come early because Yuri had instagrammed a picture of him and Mila sitting in their seats.

Victor took a tasteful picture of his smiling face framed by the heavy fall of vivid red curtains and tagged it with #lookingforinsperation. As he walked down the steps, Victor watched as Mila’s and Yuri’s phone buzzed with a notification. He was a little annoyed when Yuri just ignored it but was mollified when Mila leaned over to show him the picture.

Watching Yuri jump up in an angry huff, like a startled kitten, was one of the most enjoyable things Victor had seen in months.

“Why are you here, you don't even like ballet!” Yuri pointed an accusatory finger into Victor’s chest. “I swear if you somehow ruin this for me, I'm going to kill you.”

“Yuri, I'm here to experience the man who can out choreograph me, nothing more.” Victor shrugged. He was having fun, even sitting through a few ballet performances would be worth it for the way Yuri’s face went bright red with anger.

He sat down and watched people shuffle in. A few came over to ask for photos and autographs and when he was bored and Yuri wouldn't talk to him and Mila was too busy talking with Yakov’s ex-wife, Victor scrolled through his feed. His picture was steadily racking up likes and comments. A few fans were bemoaning that they couldn't be there. 

When the lights dimmed and an announcer came out on stage, Victor realized this was not the type of competition he was expecting.

“The rules are simple here, all dance is welcome, and the best wins!” The crowd cheered. Yuri was leaning forward in his seat, mouth tilted up in an excited half-smile.

The music swelled and a dancer was announced and welcomed to the stage. She was wearing tight leggings but her shirt flared out in a baggy mess that Victor found distasteful up until the moment that she launched into a pirouette and watched the material swing around her in a beautiful wave, shimmering like water. The next man danced well but nothing special, and the third had pretty footwork that Yuri angrily told Victor looked a lot like Katsuki’s from a few competitions past.

Finally, with Yuri almost vibrating out of his chair, the announcer called for Yuuri Katsuki and the crowd went wild. Even Victor felt his heart stutter a bit with excitement from so many cheers surrounding him. He was normally on the receiving end of the cheers and it felt refreshing for once to be part of it instead.

The music was soft, modern, with sweet female vocals but Victor could only barely hear it over the rush of blood flooding his brain. Katsuki was markedly different than the other dancers from the moment he stepped outside the curtain. For one, he wore pointe shoes, which Victor had never seen a man use the way Katsuki did, with the smooth grace and poise of a prima. He also wore no eye-catching clothes the way the others had, instead he wore a black leotard that left the tops of his shoulders bare and billowing pants with slits up the sides, flashing small glimpses of toned thighs under black tights.

The other competitors had danced to the audience, throwing out smiles and kisses and teasing winks, but Katsuki seemed to be transcending that, calling to someone watching saying _ look, look at me, I'm dancing for you, can't you see? _ and every one in the audience felt as if it was for them. Victor included.

He started with a smooth rise, pulling his body together onto pointe only to then startle into action. A plié and then a smooth transition to a_ poisson_ Victor had never seen done so well. Moving across the stage, a pirouette that looked as seductive as it must have been painful. Then, Victor watched the story take shape as the dancer launched into a _pirouette à la seconde_. Victor had played with the appearance of gender before, but watching Katsuki switch between the masculine poses and feminine moves was as beautiful as it was mesmerizing.

Victor’s sigh caught in his throat when it hit him with the weight of a truck that not only was he switching, he was dancing_ Pas de deux_. He was dancing a dance made for two. Brilliant.

Victor could feel his fingers itching to reach out, to translate those twirls into spins and the pirouettes into jumps.

The song reached its crescendo and Victor gasped in awe as the lights shut off and strobe lights flashed across the stage, cutting the dancing into flashes of an upturned leg, a perfectly arched back, and a face tilted out with eyes closed. Like a perfectly preserved picture, each flash only gave Victor a glimpse of his footwork, where he jumped from and where he landed. 

Even in the dark, he could imagine the partner spinning around Katsuki, a tentative brush to his cheek that sent the dancer into a _tour en l’air _that took his breath away. Victor realized he had been holding his breath the moment it was punched out of him by the dancer’s slow rise and hands that curled around his body as if in protection.

And then it was over.

Yuri was breathing heavy next to him with a wide smile painted across his lips, long after Katsuki had left the stage. Once he realized Victor was watching him, his enthusiasm dimmed.

“I know you hated ballet--” Yuri started but Victor cut him off.

“That was one of the single most beautiful things I have seen in years, Yuri,” Victor laughed, and felt a warmth bubble up in his chest when Yuri nodded his head happily.

“Right! I watched all of his videos and old performances, but to see it--” Yuri was laughing and Victor felt as if he had done a great disservice to the world because Yuri’s laugh was as light and childish as it should have been if so much pressure was not placed on him. “I asked Yakov if we could contact him to choreograph something for me but he said it probably wouldn't work.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea, Yuri, both of your styles would be beautiful together,” Victor said quietly, just letting the comfortable silence between them settle while Yuri watched the empty stage with a type of reverence reserved solely for those experiencing hero-worship. Like lightning striking, he jumped up. “We should go try and meet him!”

“What?” Yuri screeched. 

“The security guard over there knows who I am, I took a picture with him, so maybe he’ll let us go back and talk to him!” Victor stood and ignored Yuri frantically trying to find where Mila had wandered off to for help. When he couldn't spot her at the bar, he seemed to resign himself to following Victor who was already sweet talking the security guard.

“I'm really not allowed to let anyone back there…” He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. Victor just nodded understandingly.

“I completely understand but see, I want to use part of Yuuri Katsuki’s performance in my next routine so I wanted to ask him in person. It's just being nice,” He smiled in megawatts and the guard melted like butter, slowly opening the door and smiling back. 

The rooms were small looking and labeled with printer paper. Katsuki was at the end, tucked away in the corner. Victor knocked lightly and smiled back at Yuri who was tapping his foot nervously all while trying to hide it behind a frown.

“Come in.” Came softly from behind the door and when they opened it, Victor was momentarily stopped by the miles of leg on display as the dancer was slowly untying his pointe shoes on a chair. “Thank you, Alexi, I know it was hard to get me in last minute--”

Katsuki froze when Victor cleared his throat and when he looked up, Victor was met with wide warm brown eyes open in shock.

“Sorry to bother you, I'm--”

“Victor Nikiforov,” Yuuri said. He looked between them and his soft-looking brown hair flopped out of the pushed back style and into his face. He rubbed at his eyes and reached out to grab his glasses from the counter.

He looked soft and sweet with a few flyaway hairs and his glasses sliding down his nose. His cheeks were slowly turning red as they stood there like statues. Even Yuri wasn't moving.

“What--I mean why, exactly, are you here? In my dressing room?” Victor, in a rare moment of self-consciousness, pushed Yuri forward. 

“Yuri here is a big fan,” Yuri looked back with a hiss and eyes that promised murder when they were alone. 

“Oh!” Katsuki seemed to settle, moving forward. Yuri looked like he might faint. “Thank you, you know, I'm a big fan of yours as well?”

“What?” Yuri squeaked out. Victor’s fingers twitched to be recording.

“Your program for the junior Grand Prix was beautiful,” Katsuki mumbled, smiling and glancing shyly between them. “I almost went into professional skating, you know, but a school offered me a bigger scholarship for dancing.”

“You can skate?” Yuri asked, his eyes the size of dinner plates. Victor had a feeling Yuri’s Katsuki-based fantasies just got a little more skating related. As if his mouth was moving a mile a minute, Yuri blurted out: “Would you choreograph a program for me?”

The room was silent as Yuuri watched him. Yuri’s cheeks flushed a cherry red but before he could take it back, the dancer let out a giggle that was so endearing that both skaters sighed simultaneously. 

“I thought you both knew,” Katsuki huffed, mouth curled up with a soft smile. “I'm signed to Lilia Baranovskaya to train ballet at your rink.” He looked to Yuri. “I'm sure you would prefer her to choreograph something for you, but I can help if you’d like?”

Both skaters could only nod, the dancer smiling softly between them.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on tumblr @ whimper-soldier


End file.
